The Price of Silence with Introduction by Laurence Fishburne

Speak out for sing out for peace, human rights and an end to torture, war and exploitation.

Sidebar for this video:

AmnestyUSA
December 19, 2008

http://pth.amnestyusa.org/

A music video that brings together 16 of the worlds top musicians—some of whom have fled oppressive regimes—in a rousing musical plea to guarantee human rights for all. ...
http://pth.amnestyusa.org/

A music video that brings together 16 of the worlds top musicians—some of whom have fled oppressive regimes—in a rousing musical plea to guarantee human rights for all.

The track, donated by Aterciopelados and arranged by fusion music guru Andres Levin, combines the voices of Hugh Masekela, Julieta Venegas, Stephen Marley, Angelique Kidjo, Yungchen Lhamo, Aterciopelados, Yerba Buena, Natacha Atlas, Rachid Taha, Kiran Ahluwalia, Chiwoniso and Emmanual Jal with those of U.S. artists Natalie Merchant, and Chali 2Na of Jurassic 5. Introduction by Laurence Fishburne.

Video produced by: Link TV: Television Without Borders for Amnesty International
Directed by: Joshua Atesh Litle
Music produced by: Andres Levin for Music Has No Enemies
Nacional Records
Photos courtesy of Magnum Photos

Guest Editorial from OpEdNews: Urgent Call for American Muslims by Edip Yuksel

Here is very encouraging piece posted today at OpEdnews.com. Any of you who are sincerely interested in peace, especially in the Middle East, whether you are Jewish, Christian or Moslem (or anything else), will find this worth your reading.

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=11458

January 3, 2009

Urgent Call for American Muslims

By Edip Yuksel

It is time to unite our hearts, minds, and voices to promote peace, justice and progress. These are not just cliché words. It is time to leave aside sectarian divisions, irrational conflicts, nationalism, petty agendas, and come together and promote important universal values. It is time to sit down and reason: with each other, with our friends and with our enemies.

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Call for ACTION (Please Reply) MPJP

3:104 "Let there be a nation from amongst you that calls towards goodness, and orders recognized norms, and deters from evil. These are the successful ones."

3:200 "O you who acknowledge, be patient, call for patience, bond together, and be aware of God that you may succeed"

4:58 "God orders you to delegate the responsibilities to those who are qualified. If you judge between the people, then you shall judge with justice. It is always the best that God prescribes for you. God is Hearer, Seer."

This is not a article to be read and put aside. This is an invitation for action, an urgent call for change. If you consider yourself a muslim, that is, you have decided to peacefully surrender yourself to God alone, then this is about you, about your loved ones; about your present and future.

I am excited to inform you that a group of leading muslim activists residing in the USA have decided to establish a non-sectarian political organization to promote peace, justice and progress. Here and abroad.

We cannot be bystanders of a historical transformation. Humanity is in a stage of enormous crisis and global transformation. We cannot standby while warmongers of various religions and ideologies are hurling the world towards a possible annihilation. We cannot standby while the word "muslim" is associated with terrorism, backwardness, authoritarianism. Enough is enough. We cannot allow hatemonger define us, humiliate us or discriminate against us. We cannot allow being a candidate for the second holocaust in the history! We have to unveil and destroy the devil's plan.

It is time to unite our hearts, minds, and voices to promote peace, justice and progress. These are not just cliché words. It is time to leave aside sectarian divisions, irrational conflicts, nationalism, petty agendas, and come together and promote important universal values. It is time to sit down and reason: with each other, with our friends and with our enemies.

There are millions of muslims in the United States; there are more than a billion in the world. Yet, we are almost invisible in financial, social, and political arena. We consider ourselves muslims, yet, a great majority of us are not affiliated with any religious organization. Current religious organizations do not appeal to the diversity of muslim population in the USA. We need to create an umbrella organization that will promote:

1. Peace in the world

2. Justice for all people, regardless of their race, religion, or country of origin.

3. Progress by respecting liberty, individual rights, science, and by establishing governments of people, by people, for people.

"Muslims for Peace, Justice and Progress" is in the process of formation. We are currently creating a list of core group of activists and member organizations. The members of the core group will not live in ivory towers; we will be on streets, on university campuses, in soup kitchens, in parks, temples, courts, on TV programs, in mayor's or governor's office. We will be in the senate and congress. We will stand against aggression, oppression, discrimination, corruption, tyranny, jingoism, wars and division. We will change ourselves, our community, and the world we live in. Inshallah!

So, we invite you and all other muslims to unite. Here how you can participate in our grass-root movement and how you can contribute:

1. Send us and email with some information about you, such as your name, phone number, and city/state. The subject of the email may contain the following acronym: "MPJP"

2. Tell us in what capacities you can contribute. For instance, financial, establishing local chapters, establishing clubs in universities, website design, film making, fundraising, public relations, legal representation, lobbying, etc.

3. Suggest us the names of activists and organizations, and provide us with their contact addresses.

4. Be optimistic, be brave, work hard, and do not give up.

We will soon launch a website and invite you and others to apply for membership. We will collect signatures for a letter to the President Obama, and we will publish it.

The following mission statement is authored by sister Ruby Amatulla, the founder of the organization, Muslim for Peace, Justice and Progress (MPJP):

An American Muslim Leadership
to Spearhead an International Peace and Constructive Agenda

Vision

In this critical time when a massive shift in the mindset and the modus operandi of humanity is taking shape that would dictate the direction of human affairs for generations to come it is imperative that there is a good relationship and constructive engagements between the Muslim world and the West in general, and America in particular. Though both of these vital camps of humanity are enormously diverse themselves the overriding trend for the last several decades is that they are getting increasingly polarized and confrontational. Trust, goodwill and confidence between these two camps are absolutely indispensable for the interest and welfare of not only of themselves but of the rest of the world as well.

This should be the vision of American Muslims to provide an effective and vital leadership role in helping bringing about this outcome in our time. We have great opportunity and duty to play this critical role for peace, stability and progress in global stage. We are the common denominator between American -- the superpower of our time-- and the Muslim world— about one-fourth of humanity controlling 76% of the oil reserves of the world. We are conversant with and part of both camps. By virtue of this predisposition an enormous responsibility falls on our shoulder to be a leader in mediation, conflict resolution, reconciliation and constructive engagements. This should our vision to be a bridge and catalyst for a constructive and substantial change in the relationship between these two parties who are worlds apart.

Mission

To achieve these goals, the American Muslim Leadership suggests the following mission.

1. First we need to have an effective agenda.

2. We need to build a cohesive and agile organization which can build a grass root support among the American Muslims.

3. We need to create a national presence through our issues and involvements and help create the proper leverage to be effective in our work.

4. We also need to work closely and intensely with the leadership of civil society and the government working on similar agendas with the Muslim world.

5. Promote interfaith dialogue and civil discourse among different nations from the spectrum of these two different camps.

6. Remain objective, neutral and professional in all of its endeavors.

7. Our agenda should be multi-dimensional encompassing political, philosophical, educational, social and economic domains in order to be effective and the issues and conflicts are often multi-dimensional.

8. One of the goals should be to make a movement transnational even through it is spearheaded from America to gain an international support, legitimacy and leverage.

9. The above goals should be defined in the broadest terms while the strategies should be detailed and specific.

10. Among many issues and nations we need to set priority of focus in order to help bring about resolution in one critical area that would help solve others in the next phase.

11. The organization needs to be extremely cohesive and agile at the core decision making level and broad and diverse at the operative levels.

Authors Website: www.yuksel.org

Authors Bio: EDIP YUKSEL, J.D. is a progressive American-Turkish-Kurdish author/philosopher/lawyer/activist (too many hyphens and slashes, I know). His recent English books "Quran: a Reformist Translation", and "Manifesto for Islamic Reform" are available at http://www.brainbowpress.com. Since English is chronologically his fifth language, please ignore the mischievous "the" and other grammatical quirks in his articles.

The Jewish-Arab Peace Song (w/ English subtitles)

At Mosquito Blog we spend a lot of time uncovering all the negative horrors in the Middle East that we are shielded from by our poor excuse for a media, which is to say that we are pointing out that the alienation, hatred and misunderstanding in that region, particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are problems for our common humanity that we must face. We painfully show you the consequences of the path of fear and hatred, but as Jimi Hendrix implored in one Dylan song he recorded, "There must be some way out of here", said the joker to the thief (All Along the Watchtower). And there is! Trust me on this, or there would be no civilization at all if it weren't so.

What is that way? It is the path of love and peace, of letting go of your ego and all its conundrums and just loving one another, of just surrendering to the presence of peace, which is the transcendent reality beyond duality in the first place, where we all belong spiritually anyway. And here is a bold song a beautiful friend just sent me to direct that spirit of love and peace into the hearts of Moslems and Jews everywhere. For centuries you, both descendents of Abraham, got along pretty well together in Spain and much of the Middle East, so it is not that this is an impossible task, to love one another and forgive one another. Just listen to the song and see where it takes you.



These are the notes from the YouTube video you are looking at:

A group of Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian singers and musicians joined together to perform the Hebrew-Arabic song "Hevenu Shalom Aleinu" (We Brought Peace Upon Us) - "Ma Ana Ajmal Min Salam" (There is Nothing More Beautiful Than Peace).

Background: This song, commissioned by the organization Peace Child Israel and adopted as its anthem, was arranged by Israeli composer and singer Shlomo Gronich, who is the second singer to appear in the video (with the goatee). Sung in both Hebrew and Arabic, this beautiful, Middle-Eastern melody has the power to heal and transform Arab and Jewish communities. Down with the Occupation! Let's start an era of coexistence based on mutual respect and human dignity!

Singers:
Zehava Ben, Shlomo Gronich, Nivine Jaabri, Elias Julianos, Eli Luzon, Lubna Salame, Lea Shabat and Sahmir Shukri and participants from the Peace Child Israel workshops.

"Al Nakba"--The Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948

With the situation in Gaza and the West Bank growing more chaotic daily, and while the world is pressing for Israel and Palestinians to come up with a real and just solution, it is absolutely indispensible to know the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially what happened in and around 1948. To the Palestinians this was the time of the infamous "Al Nakba" (the Catastrophe), when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven into exile from their villages and lands in areas Israelis were now claiming as their own, and where they needed to eliminate the Palestinian majority for political reasons as well.

Here is a video that gives you a look at events in 1948 from the Palestinian perspective. Some will criticize this as propaganda, or simply part of a more complex picture. However, be that as it may, this is still how Palestinians themselves largely view their history, and we cannot begin to understand their differences with the State of Israel unless we can see things through their eyes. Personally, my studies of history lead me to consider this video as quite representative of what happened. Leading Jewish scholars like Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, and Tom Segev have debunked, to my satisfaction at least, the official Israeli revionist claims that Al Nakba is a myth.

Another reason to show this video is to simply point out, in photographs, that a viable Palestinian culture existed prior to 1948, and that, moreover, some Palestinians were and are Christians, not just Moslems. Revisionist propagandists on the Right have also been trying to paint a picture of wandering "Arab" populations that just happened to be more or less squatting on or enticed into settling in Palestinian territory just prior to 1948, and that they had no history, no culture, nada.

Yet nothing could be farther from the truth as you will see as you watch this video. And again, let me point out, especially for those of you who are Christians, that both Palestinian Moslems and Christians were driven from their homes by Israeli forces in 1948.

Laura Nyro - Save the Country

As we watch the extremists and Fascists on the Right continue to spread their emotional plague of hatred, death and destruction throughout America and beyond, many of us have begun to fight back.

But it would help to have a theme song, and a rallying cry to inspire us. Well, Laura Nyro, the New York City gal born in the Bronx with the powerful and spiritual voice, gave us one years ago when she wrote and performed "Save the Country". It's time to start singing this song again and shouting "Save the country now" from the rooftops.

Yell Fire

Here's Michael Franti's new Yell Fire music video, shot at his San Francisco concert this year by Brooke Duthie. Franti is becoming a major artistic force for love, peace and humanity. "Stay human" is one of his core messages to soldiers around the world, as they are ordered to do inhuman things by their lost-in-purgatory governments.















(photo source)

Thank God(dess) for Michael Franti. Michael is becoming a cultural icon and hero of progressive forces on the planet. His head and heart are in very solid, loving places and he is moving America along toward higher consciousness in these dark times.

A key component of the Peace and Justice Movement: building resistance against war and enabling Peace though music and the arts.

Franti in concert

Franti has also made a terrific documentary of his recent musical and Peace odyssey through Iraq, Israel and Palestine entitled I Know I'm Not Alone. Check it out, I've seen it and it's terrific. Music can open people up and unite them, even in a war zone.